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Travel guide
Rennes
4 days · 8 things to do
Best time to go: May to July, and September
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Welcome
Rennes, in a few days
Rennes has two faces, split by the fire of 1720: on one side, hundreds of leaning half-timbered houses from the 15th and 16th centuries, on the other, straight granite streets rebuilt after the blaze. With about 68,000 students among 225,000 people, it is also one of the youngest cities in France, which shows in its Saturday market, its bar street and its prices.
- Day by day
- D1 Day 1 2 things
- D2 Day 2 2 things
- D3 Day 3 2 things
- D4 Day 4 2 things
- Worth sorting before you go
- Words that help
- The practical page
- Packing checklist
The trip
Day by day
Map of the sights (numbers follow the suggested order). It prints with the base map.
D1
Day 1
2 things to do · at your own pace
- Morning · Place des Lices Saturday market free · about 1 h 30Two iron market halls and stalls spilling into the nearby streets, where oysters are opened to order and eaten standing, glass of muscadet in hand.
- Afternoon · Half-timbered houses of Rue du Chapitre free · about 45 minLook up: storeys jut out over the street, beams carry carved faces, and Place du Champ-Jacquet has the city's most photographed row of crooked houses.
🛏️ Where to sleep · Hôtel des Lices€110 a night
D2
Day 2
2 things to do · at your own pace
- Morning · Place Sainte-Anne and the student quarter free · an eveningRue Saint-Michel packs some thirty bars into five minutes' walk, mostly on the ground floors of listed half-timbered buildings, at prices set by student budgets.
- Afternoon · Parliament of Brittany · about 1 h 30The 17th-century seat of Breton justice, with gilded coffered ceilings and Gobelins tapestries, faithfully restored after a fire during a fishermen's riot in 1994.
🛏️ Where to sleep · Mercure Rennes Centre Gare€120 a night
D3
Day 3
2 things to do · at your own pace
- Morning · Rennes Museum of Fine Arts · about 1 h 30Built largely on collections seized during the Revolution, it centres on Georges de La Tour's The Newborn, alongside Rubens, Chardin and Gauguin.
- Afternoon · Les Champs Libres and the Brittany Museum free · about 2 hScience rooms, a planetarium and the Brittany museum under one roof, whose section on the Dreyfus affair, retried in Rennes in 1899, stands out.
🛏️ Where to sleep · Hôtel Anne de Bretagne€105 a night
D4
Day 4
2 things to do · at your own pace
- Morning · Parc du Thabor free · about 1 hFormal flowerbeds, woodland and wide lawns, with an artificial waterfall and grotto hidden behind the trees that most visitors walk straight past.
- Afternoon · Frac Bretagne free · about 1 h 30The regional contemporary art collection, some five thousand works shown in rotation inside a black monolith by Odile Decq, opened in 2012.
🛏️ Where to sleep · Brit Hotel Rennes Le Castel€95 a night
Before you go
Worth sorting before you go
📶 eSIM data
Online the moment you land, no roaming bill.
Get one · Holafly
Online the moment you land, no roaming bill.
Get one · Holafly
🛡️ Travel insurance
Health, luggage, cancellation.
Cover it · Ekta
Health, luggage, cancellation.
Cover it · Ekta
💳 Fee-free card
Pay at the real rate, with no exchange markup.
Open one · Revolut
Pay at the real rate, with no exchange markup.
Open one · Revolut
🚐 Airport transfer
A private car at a fixed price from the moment you land.
Book it · GetTransfer
A private car at a fixed price from the moment you land.
Book it · GetTransfer
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Good to know
Flavours & local habits
🍽️ Worth tasting
- Baguette: the daily bread, bought fresh from the boulangerie. Ask for a "tradition", made with nothing but flour, water, salt and yeast.
- Croissant and pain au chocolat: breakfast pastries, best in the morning while still warm.
- The cheese course: served after the main dish and before dessert, from Comté to Camembert.
- Steak frites: the bistro standard. Order it "saignant" for rare or "à point" for medium.
- Galettes and crêpes: savoury buckwheat pancakes from Brittany filled with ham, egg and cheese, then sweet ones for pudding.
- House wine: ordered by the carafe or the "pichet" at lunch, and often better value than a bottle.
⚠️ Best avoided
- Say "bonjour" when you walk into a shop, a bakery or a café, and "au revoir" as you leave. Skipping it comes across as rude.
- Lunch runs from about noon to 2pm and dinner starts around 7.30pm. In between, most restaurant kitchens are closed.
- Most shops close on Sunday, and many small towns shut on Monday too. Bakeries and markets open on Sunday morning.
- Do not pay for bottled water at the table: ask for "une carafe d'eau", tap water that is served free with a meal.
- Around the big Paris sights, walk past anyone with a petition or a friendship bracelet. They are there to distract you while someone else takes your wallet.
Getting by
Words that help
English ↔ French
| English | French |
|---|---|
| Hello | Bonjour |
| Thank you | Merci |
| Please | S'il vous plaît |
| Yes | Oui |
| No | Non |
| Excuse me | Excusez-moi |
| Goodbye | Au revoir |
| Do you speak English? | Parlez-vous anglais ? |
| I don't understand | Je ne comprends pas |
| How much is it? | Combien ça coûte ? |
| Where are the toilets? | Où sont les toilettes ? |
| The bill, please | L'addition, s'il vous plaît |
| Help! | Au secours ! |
| Cheers! | Santé ! |
The essentials
The practical page
CurrencyEuro (EUR, €)
BudgetAbout €80 a day, mid-range
Best seasonMay to July, and September
PlugC/E · 230V
Tap waterSafe to drink
TippingService is included by law, round up
Emergency112
EntrySchengen area: an ID card or passport for EU citizens, 90 days visa-free for UK, US, Canadian and Australian passports.
HealthNo specific vaccination needed. Check that tetanus, diphtheria, polio and MMR are up to date.
Scan to open this guide online, always up to date.
https://offwegooo.com/en/guides/rennes
Don't forget
Packing checklist
Have a good trip.
Guide made on offwegooo.com · Photos via Pexels · Details are indicative, check before you leave.